


protectors of the city (of each other too)

by isloremipsumafterall (orphan_account)



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/F, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-28
Updated: 2014-09-28
Packaged: 2018-02-19 04:25:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2374466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/isloremipsumafterall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Korra's a superhero known as The Avatar, the latest in the line of them. She arrives at Republic City after sneaking out from her training masters and runs in to another hero of the city, together they fight crime.</p>
            </blockquote>





	protectors of the city (of each other too)

The first known superhero was called The Avatar. He had shown up one day with powers of the elements, fighting for all of the people and then disappearing. No one really knows how it happens but somehow the powers get transferred to a child born soon after and they take on the persona. Though the Avatar was the first there were many more heroes that began appearing throughout history.

Korra had memorized every one of them. Partly because it was her duty as the latest in the line of The Avatar but also because she was fascinated and wanted to learn every fighting style she could even if it was just from a book. It wasn’t like Tenzin was ever going to let her go out to Republic City to meet other superheroes, not until she was “ready”, because all of The Avatar’s had to be trained with their powers. No one wanted someone with powers like theirs just running around causing havoc.

She had heard about the Fire Ferrets, a team of brothers who controlled fire and earth respectively and had fought the Triple Threat Triad last year, bringing down most of their members. She had also heard of The Iron Chief who could control metal and led the police force.

But the superhero that interested her most in Republic City was The Engineer, a mysterious figure who had taken out the Agni Kai Triad single handily. Only two things were known about the Engineer, that they had no powers and relied on technology and their own strength to fight and that they got said technology from Future Industries though no one knew how and Future Industries had denied supporting the hero.

Everything about them was a mystery and all Korra really wanted to do was get out of this stuffy temple and _meet_ them. Which is why she was sneaking away to the city tonight, on her polar bear dog affectionately nicknamed Naga. She’ll admit that when she does get the city days later, climbing in to the occasional truck here and there so Naga can get some rest, she’s overwhelmed by it all. Republic City is lit up like nothing Korra’s ever seen before.

She so mesmerized by all of it that her concentration is only broken away when some boys bump in to her.

“Hey, watch where you’re going!” Korra snaps at them, the least they could have done was said sorry or something.

The two boys turn around with sneers on their faces. “Why don’t you watch where you’re going little girl.”

It makes Korra’s blood boil and she practically feel the fire dancing along her fingertips already as she prepares for what could be a fight. One of the boys inches towards her and she blasts a shot of fire in his direction, ducking when the other boy tries to punch her. Naga growls next to her and body checks the other boy in to a house.

The boy she shot fire at yells something that she can’t understand but before she knows it the street it filled with other kids, it’s a gang then, she could probably take though she won’t be getting out of this one without a few scratches.

The fight starts off in her favour as she pulls water from an eaves trough nearby to whip at the kids steadily gaining ground behind her and then makes the earth shake to the kids in front of her. She can hear them whispering the name ‘Avatar’ already. If there hadn’t been so many of them she might have continued to still have the upper hand but a rock that’s thrown solidly in to her back has her gasping for air and she misses a step only to get a fist in her face.

It’s exactly the sort of thing Tenzin warned her about in Republic City with the gang filled streets and he is going to gloat about this when she gets out of this situation. If she gets out of this situation.

She’s rocking back on to her feet when suddenly several members of the gang drop after being struck by lightning. Another flash lights up the air and more members go down. Korra takes advantage of it to warp the earth beneath the kids in front of them so a chasm opens up but closes on their middles before they can drop through and then forms a fireball to shoot at some fleeing members.

When she turns around there’s someone right in her face, wearing a mask of some sort. They’re still holding some kind of contraption in their hands that Korra can only guess was the cause of the lightening and quick glance over shows that they’re covered head to toe in red and grey armour, it’s impossible for her to even guess a gender.

“Are you all right?” The voice sounds funny, staticky like how Korra’s head voices on the radio sound before and also…fake. She’s never heard of someone being able to change their voice like that but if this is who she thinks (hopes) it is then she can’t be that surprised.

“I’m fine. Are you…The Engineer?”

“Guilty as charged. You’re The Avatar I assume.”

“Sure am.” Korra grins and sticks out her hand. “I’ve always wanted to meet you.”

There’s a pause before the Engineer takes her hand. “Likewise.”

Sirens sound in the air, getting closer and closer to them, The Engineer looks back in the direction they’re coming from before turning to Korra again. “We should get out of here. Follow me.”

The Engineer runs off down the alley and Korra quickly scrambles on to Naga’s back to follow. She loses count of how many streets they run down, they mean nothing to Korra anyway and brings Naga to a halt when the Engineer stops in front of a warehouse. She enters and The Engineer lets the door fall shut behind her.

“What brings you to Republic City Avatar Korra?”

Korra scrunches her nose at the title. “Korra’s fine. I’ve always wanted to come here, but my trainer said I had to wait…I may have broken a couple rules getting here.”

“So you aren’t here under official business then.”

“Nope. Just decided to show up.”

“Do you have a place to stay already, any money with you?”

Korra frowns because truthfully, beyond getting here and meeting this mysterious super hero she didn’t have any plans, it may be was naive of her to show up and think that just because she was The Avatar things would be provided for her. “Well. No.”

The Engineer sighs, it sounds eerie with the static. “So no plan and you started a fight on your first day here.”

“Hey look, I just wanted to meet you and see Republic City. Do you have any idea how boring it was getting being stuck in that temple in the middle of nowhere?”

The Engineer doesn’t answer her, merely walks by her shaking their head.

“Wait up!” Korra turns to follow them but The Engineer turns and halts her with a hand on Korra’s chest.

“You wait here. I’m finding someone who will be able to help you.”

“You’re really going for this weirdly mysterious thing aren’t you?” Korra tries to peer through the mask, she thinks she sees a flash of green for a second.

“Some of us need our identities to remain secret.” With that The Engineer starts walking again.

“Who am I going to tell?” Korra yells to their back. “I just got here!”

She’s starting to regret wanting to meet this hero, even if the way they took out that gang was pretty cool.

~~~

Korra’s left waiting for nearly an hour by her own estimate when the door finally falls open again and a figure walks in. The figure’s dressed in red and black almost similar to the Engineer except that the way the clothing sticks to their curves indicates that this is a woman. When she gets close enough Korra recognizes her as Asami Sato, the CEO of Future Industries.

She only knows this because Asami was the one who released the press report that The Engineer was not tied to Future Industries after it was the Engineer who took down her father who had been using the company to start a war. The Engineer brought the truth of Hiroshi Sato’s actions in to light and Asami had stepped up immediately and taken control of her family’s company.

“Avatar Korra,” Asami holds out her hand. “Asami Sato, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Korra shakes it. “Same here. So…you’re who The Engineer brought to help out? Because I thought that The Engineer wasn’t at all tied to Future Industries.”

She’s trying not to be too excited because may be she’s already figured out something about The Engineer that no one else knows.

“They’re not.” Asami pulls her hand away and flicks her hair back as it’s fallen in her face. “I suppose they just knew that I’d be the right person to help. They said you didn’t have a place to stay or…anything really.”

Korra flushes at that, embarrassed that now she’s being called out by The Engineer and the richest eighteen year old in the world by all accounts. “Yeah about that…it’s…no big deal really, I’ll find my own place-”

“Nonsense.” Asami cuts her off. “You’re The Avatar. You should stay with me.”

That’s how, despite all protests Korra ends up in the guest room across from Asami, and Tenzin is so going to murder her when he finds out about all this.

~~~

It isn’t until the fourth night that she’s there that she sees the Engineer again. She and Asami had just finished dinner with Asami leaving a bit earlier than normal when she walked in to her room to see The Engineer standing there.

“What are you doing here?”

The Engineer shrugs. “I thought I’d come to say hi again. I thought you wanted to know me Korra.”

She can’t deny that. “I did, I do. But if you’re found here won’t you be arrested? I mean you did technically steal all that stuff from here right?”

By the minute shaking of The Engineers shoulders Korra suspects she’s being laughed at. “Trying to find out my secrets Korra?”

“Oh I’ll get to them, eventually, just you wait.”

“Well in the meantime how about you come patrolling the city with me?”

Korra’s only seen the city at night once since she first arrived, when Asami took her to an upscale restaurant. She’s seen it plenty of times during the day including when she went to give her statement about the gang fight to The Iron Chief, she suspect that Lin doesn’t like her very much given that she threatened to throw Korra in jail for property damages. Asami paid for all of them and Korra couldn’t thank her enough.

Everyone in the city wants to meet her too; she’s already had lunch with mayor and met The Fire Ferrets, Mako and Bolin. Apparently Asami supports them too because Future Industries does officially pay for any equipment they need. It’s been a busy couple of days but Korra feels like she’s still going stir crazy without some kind of spar or fight, it was something she complained about to Asami at dinner.

So The Engineer’s offer is sort of perfect for her to burn off that excess energy that’s been building up the past few days. The two of them race across rooftops, Korra using fire to burst her along the buildings while The Engineer uses some kind of grappling hook contraption.

They stop a robber in front of the mayor’s building and then race across town to help put out a fire, Korra using water around the air to douse the flames while The Engineer helps get people out of the building. They work well together, something Korra comments on when they take a break, sitting on the rooftop of Asami’s main company building.

“So you’ll join me tomorrow then too?” The Engineer asks and Korra nods her head in excitement.

~~~

Tenzin arrives the next morning furious at her but between herself and Asami they get him calmed down. He’s letting her stay in the City but every other day she now has to drop by the Island where he lives to keep up her training still she still hasn’t mastered air completely. So long as it means she can stay in the City Korra agrees wholeheartedly.

She spends mornings and most of the afternoon with The Fire Ferrets getting to know more of the city. Evenings are her time with Asami who takes her out to race tracks and fighting matches and everywhere else she could possible dream of going and some places she couldn’t. Occasionally she asks Korra to be her plus one on nights she has to go to dinner meetings with other businesses.

Nights she spends patrolling the city with The Engineer with the thrill of a chase thrumming through her and the knowledge that someone’s there to watch her back. She still hasn’t gotten any further to pulling secrets out of The Engineer until the night they bring down a business man who looked like he was trying to take over where Hiroshi Sato left off.

When they take their normal break on the rooftop The Engineer is quieter than normal.

“You okay?” Korra asks, she tries to catch The Engineer’s eyes but can’t say if she succeeds or not due to the mask.

“I’m fine it’s just… you know how the first thing I did was take down Hiroshi Sato?”

Korra nods.

“I was just thinking… was it really worth it if someone else was just going to take his place?”

Korra’s amazed at how much emotion she can hear through the static, or maybe the past few weeks have made her more attuned to understanding The Engineer. She knocks her shoulder against the other hero.

“I can’t say if it’s worth it to you but I know it was worth it to a lot of people. You saved a lot of lives by stopping that war and…I’m sure Asami’s grateful…”

“That I put away her father?”

“Well. No. But that the truth came out. It’s better to know right? I can ask her next time I see her.”

“No. No, it’s fine. You don’t have to do that, I’m pretty sure I already know.”

“But you can’t know for certain until you ask right?” Korra’s hand gripped The Engineer’s shoulder. “Let me help you.”

“Like you did when we were fighting The Cabbage Man?” The Engineer somehow teases her, making reference to when Korra was getting buried in cabbage while The Engineer took him down by getting up close and shocking him.

“Who even decides that’s a good name and to throw cabbages everywhere. I’m going to stink for weeks.” Korra flops back on to the top of the roof sighing. “Don’t think I missed that conversation change. I’ll talk to Asami, you’ll see, it will all be okay. You’re a great hero.”

“Not as good as The Avatar.”

Korra shimmers a bit until her hands in reach of where The Engineer’s is resting and slides her hand on top of it giving it a gentle squeeze. “Just as good. Partners remember?”

They stay on the roof until Korra’s almost asleep and The Engineer’s poking at her to get moving. She falls asleep that night wishing she could get Asami and The Engineer in the place at once to get everything sorted out.

~~~

The next morning at breakfast Asami almost looks as tired as Korra feels, and she feels completely drained and warm all at once. She’s never seen Asami look anything but radiant no matter the day before, it’s like Asami’s super power or something.

“Everything okay Asami?”

“Hmm, yeah it’s fine Korra. How about you, you look a little tired.”

Korra sneezes but waves off Asami’s concern, “I’m fine. So listen I was talking to The Engineer last night. And I know he was your dad and everything but how do you feel about The Engineer putting him away?”

She decides to go with blunt because that’s her specialty anyway, Asami gives her a small smile. “I’m not sure truthfully. He’s my dad and I’m always going to love him despite the things he did. I just…can’t imagine letting him go on like that. I’m glad he was caught, but I also wish it had been someone else you know? Or that that had been it, but it’s like there’s so much corruption in Republic City, why bother with one when something else will just come up? I…don’t really know Korra.”

Korra nods but sneezes midway. Asami frowns at her, “Are you coming down with something?

“No, I’m-” She sneezes again and shivers from a sudden chill.

Asami leans over the table to rest a hand against her forehead, trailing it down to cup Korra’s cheek and tilting Korra’s head up so she can get a better look at Korra. It’s cool against her heated skin and Korra leans in to a little. Asami always smells like something a little flowery but also like engine oil from the machine’s Korra has seen her work on. It’s a weird mixture but Korra can’t say it’s completely unpleasant.

After she sneezes again Asami leads her back to her room, tucking her in bed and then running out to grab Korra some tea.

“You’re going to be late for your business meeting,” Korra protests, she’s trying to watch Asami but her head feels like it’s swimming now.

“You’re more important.” Asami says it so matter of fact that Korra can’t help but feel a pleased fluttering sensation in her stomach at that. She’s come to admire Asami for being so strong in picking up the pieces for her company after everything that happened and coming out on top; that Asami thinks of her as important is touching. “Take some tea and then rest, I’ll stick around for bit.”

Korra only gets through a few sips before she’s slipping back off in to sleep.

~~~

When she wakes up again it’s to a window creaking open and a thumping noise. She tries to be instantly alert but her body’s rebelling against her. A hand falls on her shoulder and though her vision is a bit blurry from dizziness she can make The Engineer.

“Cabbages get to you?” The Engineer says, pushing her back down on to the bed with a gloved hand.

“May be that was his revenge after all.” Korra retorts, “Be careful on patrol without me.”

She gets a hiss of static in her ears that she thinks is The Engineer humming in agreement. She doesn’t like that The Engineer will be going out tonight without her but it isn’t like Korra could stop them right now.

The hand on her shoulder falls away and it sounds like The Engineer is taking a step back when Korra bolts up again, grabbing their wrist. “Wait. I talked to Asami.” She struggles to get the words out because she starts coughing. A glass touches her lips and she greedily gulps down the water.

“She should be here if you want to-” Korra stops, even with the dizziness and the darkness she can’t see Asami in the room. “Oh. Well. She…doesn’t blame you. Pretty sure. It’s complicated. But you’re doing a good job.”

She just wants The Engineer to know that and feel better before they go on patrol that night. To know that they’re doing good and the city needs them.

She gets the impression The Engineer is smiling at her by the crinkling of the mask. “Go to sleep Korra.”

Gloved hands push her down once more and rearrange the blankets around her. She’s almost asleep when there’s a rustling of fabric that doesn’t sound like the blankets that fills the air and soft lips press against her forehead, a familiar smell tickles Korra’s nose despite her sickness. When she cracks open an eye The Engineer is already tugging the mask back in place and leaving her wondering if she dreamed it all up.

~~~

She doesn’t have time to dwell on it beyond thinking that it’s all a crazy hallucinated dream because she’s busy getting better. During that time a few things happen: Asami works from home until Korra’s better and The Engineer stops by before their patrol every night and a new villain takes to the streets. He calls himself Amon and declares that he’s giving balance back in to the world by taking out anyone with powers, heroes or villains it doesn’t matter to him.

The first person he takes out is a minor thief that Korra and The Engineer took down named Tahno. He could control water so he was placed in a special prison in the city. Amon broke in to it and Tahno was found dead the next day, a warning written in the wall next to him.

As Korra gets better she’s glued to the radio trying to hear more and pushing herself more and more each day to get better because every time The Engineer goes out on patrol now her heart is pounding with worry that they won’t come back. It doesn’t matter that The Engineer has no powers and thus shouldn’t be a target, she knows them now. Chances are they’d throw themselves in the way of someone who did have powers just to save them.

Asami’s presence during the day is the only thing that calms her. She and Asami talk back and forth about Amon and ways to stop him when Korra gets better. The closer she is to getting better though the more she can see Asami drawing back with worry on her face.

The day she arrives at the table one hundred percent herself again Asami looks at her with pleading eyes. “Don’t do this Korra. Let The Engineer handle this, or The Iron Chief. Anyone else, not you, please.”

“I have to do this Asami. One of the sand builders was found dead last night, this has to end.” Korra feels infinitely older than her seventeen years and more than that feels dread. She still hasn’t got full range of her power with control over air eluding her despite Tenzin’s coaching, but she’s confident that with The Engineer by her side they can stop this.

Asami sighs, “All right, but do you think you could spare some time tonight to go to dance?”

Korra makes a face and Asami laughs at her. “Come on Korra, for me?”

She can’t really say no to that.

~~~

Asami helps to pin her hair up, each time she leans over to gather more stands that maddening smell tickles Korra’s nose. Part of her wants to lean over and kiss Asami right there, pull off her clothes and see if that smell is everywhere under Asami’s skin. Another part of her is too worried it will crack the foundation of the friendship she’s formed with Asami.

The dance is at the mayor’s place, with a wide open ballroom and rich socialites everywhere. Asami slips her arm through Korra’s as she trails them around the room, introducing her to people that Korra’s not going to remember for a million years. When the music starts up couples start filtering in to the dance floor.

“Want to dance?” Asami asks, looking over at Korra with a spark of mischief in her green eyes. She doesn’t give Korra a chance to respond because she’s dragging her off to the dance floor anyway.

Asami presses tight against her, leading Korra’s hands to her hips while her own wrap around Korra’s neck. “Has anyone ever told you how lovely you look Korra?”

Korra snorts, “Asami you saw me last week looking like a living skeleton, lovely should be the last thing used to describe me.”

“You are.” Asami insists, her eyes have caught Korra’s and are imploring her to believe Asami. “Beside you make a very cute skeleton.”

“Do not.”

“Do too.”

“Asa _mi_.”

“Kor _ra_.”

Asami brings them closer, smiling that devious smile that Korra has seen right before she crushes her business opponents and gets what she wants, puffs of warm air against Korra’s lips. That’s when all hell breaks loose.

The Fire Ferrets charge in to the room yelling Korra’s name. She and Asami break apart.

“What is it? What’s going on?”

“It’s Amon.” Mako says as he tries to catch his breath. “He’s attacking the police force.”

“Korra.” She turns back to Asami when her name is called, “Go. Take the car.”

A while ago Asami had given her driving lessons. It was stop and go for a bit and Korra’s still not perfect at it but Asami still throws her the keys.

She then darts in close, wraps her arms around Korra again and presses her lips to Korra’s, it’s crushing and desperate, teeth hitting each other and when she pulls back her lips are swollen. “Just come back to me.”

Korra nods, a bit dumbfounded by the action. When she runs out of the building she turns to look as Asami one last time but Asami isn’t there.

~~~

The police headquarters are already in ruin by the time Korra gets there, she jumps out of the car and takes in the scene. By the time she’s figured out an entrance point The Engineer lands on the street next to her.

“Took you long enough.” Korra says.

“Plan?” The Engineer wastes no time.

“Through that window over there, we’ll have to take a look to see what the inside looks like when we get up there.”

In complete synchronization to two of them make their way to the window. When they peer inside they can see The Iron Chief fighting who Korra assumes is Amon. She’s putting up a decent fight but her arm is damaged from what Korra can see.

“I’ll distract Amon, you get the Chief out.” Korra doesn’t give The Engineer time to argue, breaking the window and using fire to torpedo herself towards Amon, bringing her hand back to draw a fist and punch him in the head when she’s close enough.

Behind her she can hear the Engineer yelling something to The Iron Chief but Korra’s already busy ducking a whip that flies in the air from Amon who’s gotten his balance back. It’s suspicious like The Engineers so she suspect that he’s stolen some of Future Industries technology and she’s already angry on Asami’s behalf.

She plants her feet in the ground and then makes it shake around them but Amon’s already jumping through the air and the whip is flying again. This time it hits Korra and she screams when the electricity runs through her body. She falls forward and summersaults back up, muscles screaming in protest. Amon’s one step ahead of her again because the whip strikes her back and she’s cursing that she wore such light clothes for the dance because it makes it easier for the whip to cut them and strike against her skin sending volts of electricity through it again.

She sees a glint from the corner of her eyes and knows that Amon has drawn his knife that he’s been seen using to kill people with powers. She struggles to push herself to the side and avoids the knife on its downward arch. She twists and shoots a blast of fire towards him, forcing him to back away from her.

From over top The Engineer crashes in to him, back from getting The Iron Chief out of the building. They tussle on the ground, The Engineer knocks the knife from Amon’s hands and it lets Korra catch her breath. She’s too late to stop it when Amon gets the upper hand and jabs The Engineer with some kind of baton that Korra’s seen the police use. It must be electrified too because The Engineer twist, static from their voice modulator breaking up as they scream.

“Get away from them!” Korra yells, throwing rocks and careful of her aim so that she doesn’t hit the Engineer.

Amon scrambles away and picks up his knife again, he ducks some of the rocks thrown at him and grunts in pain when some hit their mark. He looks like he has a goal now though because he’s running towards The Engineer again and yanking their mask back and drawing them against him to hold the knife to their throat and Korra freezes.

“Stop right there Avatar. I’d drop the rocks if I were you, least The Engineer here become spilt blood.”

The rocks she was going to send flying fall to the ground. It’s her worst fear because it’s Asami under that mask. She’s staring at Korra with horror and shaking her head.

“Korra you have to stop him it doesn’t matter what happens to me-” The knife digs dipper in Asami’s neck, breaking the skin and drawing a thin line of blood.

Korra’s trying to think desperately of anything that she can do, there’s no water around that she can work with, fire might burn Asami and he’ll see the rocks coming and the ground shaking could force the knife in to Asami’s neck.

She’s at an impasse and she can’t let Asami get hurt, unless… it’s a long shot but Korra puts all the effort in to it as she tries to twist the air behind Amon.

Asami sees the determined look in her eyes and gives the tiniest of nods and then they’re both moving in to action. Asami shoves an elbow in to Amon’s gut and twists away, crying out when the knife cuts part of her neck. Korra slams the air that she’s gathered in to Amon. For added benefit now that Asami’s away from him she throws rocks and fires as she pleases. One of the rocks strikes his head and he falls down for the count.

The elements calm around her as she rushes towards Asami, taking a look at the damages.

“It’s fine Korra, hardly broke the skin.” Asami assures her and it does look worse than it seems.

Korra breaks off part of her shirt to press it against Asami’s neck to stem the blood. “The Engineer? You’ve got some explaining to do.”

“I will.” Asami smiles at her. “Later. We need to get home and let the police take care of the rest of this.”

Korra nods, turning back to tie Amon up so he can’t escape. Together she and Asami make their way back home, they get each other cleaned up and collapse next to each other on the couch that’s in Asami’s living room.

“So?” Korra prompts.

“There isn’t much to tell. I found out what my father was doing and decided to put a stop to it.”

“Along with everything else in city?”

She feels Asami shrug. “Someone had to. You hadn’t arrived yet.”

“And when I got here?”

“You needed a tour guide.” Asami teases. “And some back up.”

“You’re not back up. We’re partners remember?” Her hand searches for Asami’s on the couch, grabbing hold of it and not letting go.

Asami’s head falls against hers, face presses in to Korra’s hair. “I can live with that.”

They still have a lot to talk about, and a future to discuss, but for now Korra’s content to drift off to sleep with Asami beside her and the smell of flowers and oil lingering in the air.


End file.
